Noghri's 55g Planted Tank journey

[Noghri]

Here is the journey of my tank so far.





I was given a 55g tank back in early October by a friend, Bought some decorations and such, cycled the tank and added fish.



Of course just having fish was quickly boring, so I decided to add a couple plants. And then a couple pieces of driftwood.



Cherry Barbs




Red Tailed Shark




Dwarf Gourami

 

[Noghri]

Of course then I realized that I still wanted some more plants, so I ordered some eco-complete and replaced my gravel. And then ordered some plants.

They finally arrived today and I was able to plant them. Here is what I have:






Crypt Parva, Water Hyssop, Marble Queen Sword


broad leaf ludwigia, Marble Queen Sword, Corkscrew Vallis,




Rotala Rotundifolia, Corkscrew Vallis, Ambulia,

There is also an Anubias Nana on a piece of driftwood that isn't pictured.

Hopefully it will fill in nicely within a few weeks, I'll keep everyone updated as I make changes and the tank fills in.

 

[Rivercats]

I noticed you have your stem plants planted in bunches. You need to take them out, cut about an inch of the bottoms off, then plant each stem individually so they almost but not quite touch the plant stems around it. This allow light and water circulation to the lower stems and also gives you a much thicker stand of the plant.

 

[Noghri]

I did trim the bottoms, I spread them out some. I'll assume you are saying that they are not spread out enough? I'll have to work on that a little more.

 

[Rivercats]

Most of them looked pretty closely bunched together. Or is it just the pic's? The problem is if they aren't spread out as I suggested they can lose lower leaves and even have bottom rot is light and water circulation can't penetrate.

 

[Noghri]

I went and looked at the tank and saw what you were talking about. It was the worst with the ambulia. I redid it and this is what they look like now, what do you think?

 

[Rivercats]

Much better. I keep ambulia and in high light those stems can open up to an enormous size. It's my favorite green stem plant.

 

[Noghri]

I know we talked about it before, but right now I have 2 T5HO bulbs over the tank, but a 4 bulb fixture. Can I go to all 4 bulbs now, or should I wait for it to fill in more? If so, what mix of bulbs should I go with?

I put in root tabs when I planted, and can does florish excel and florish complete. I also have set up a DIY CO2 system, but haven't started it yet.

 

[Rivercats]

That is alot of light for so few plants. Plus with light that high you will have to use either CO2 or dose liquid carbon. You would also need to bump your ferts up to a more complete dosing system like PPS-Pro dry ferts dosed daily. I think at this time you'd end up with algae issues.

 

[Noghri]

I thought that might be the case. Thanks so much for all your help. I'm excited for when they grow in a bit more.

 

[Noghri]

So its been 2 weeks since I initially planted my tank. The first week didn't go so well. I had to replant a lot of my stem plants, because my rosy barbs pulled them up. But after about a week they grew some roots and I haven't had that issue again.

I did notice that all of my plants, with the exception of the 2 swords and the anubias nana started to look a little brown and faded, and even those had some holes in the leaves. So I ordered PPS pro and started dosing last weekend. Its made a huge difference.

I also finally got around to putting a black background on on the tank, which really helped bring out the colors in the tank.




The Water Hyssop, which was red initially, and faded to nearly nothing in a week, has started to color up again. It looks really awesome sitting on the living room floor about 20 feet away.




The Ambrulia, which you can see turned brown, has started to show growth and returned to bright green at the top. In the next week or so I will trim them and replant the good growth.

Other than the Ambrulia, nothing seems to be growing taller yet. The colors have changed, so I'm hoping growth will follow soon.